1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a path predicting method for a contents delivery apparatus and, more particularly, to a path predicting method for a contents delivery apparatus for delivering contents such as music and a movie which is preliminarily reserved, for a mobile terminal of which geometric position changes as the user or vehicle travels, such as a portable telephone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), an on-vehicle device, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, a contents delivery system for delivering contents such as music and a movie which is preliminarily reserved, for a mobile terminal of which geometric position changes as the user or vehicle travels, such as a portable telephone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), an on-vehicle device, or the like has been being examined. By the system, the user can receive reserved contents even away from home and view the contents at appropriate time.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication (Heisei) 11-272711 discloses a system for accepting a contents acquisition order from the user in advance as a reservation, temporarily storing the ordered contents in a contents storage provided in a position on a network having little transmission delay from a user terminal and, after that, delivering the contents in a lump to the user terminal.
In the system proposed, the user designates the identifier of contents and time and place to receive the contents in the contents acquisition order made in advance as a reservation. At the designated time, the contents temporarily stored in any of contents storages which are spread geometrically is delivered to the user terminal via a radio base station installed in the designated place such as a service area. Even if the user cannot reach the designated place at the designated time due to traffic jam or the like and cannot receive the contents, the system attempts to supply the contents by transferring the contents to a contents storage which is located near the current position of the user terminal and can deliver the contents.
In the system, contents storages are disposed so as to be spread geometrically and contents is temporarily stored in a contents storage close to the user, and is delivered via a radio base station. Consequently, time required to deliver contents can be shortened.
The applicant herein has also proposed “Contents distribution method to mobile terminal and its center system” (Japanese Patent Application 2001-323625) capable of efficiently delivering contents from the most suitable contents storage to the user without preliminary designation of time and place to receive contents.
FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of the system proposed before. A travel information management center 1, a contents distribution center 2, and a contents server group 3 are connected to each other via the Internet 4. The travel information management center 1 has a scheduling apparatus 11, a path predicting apparatus 12, and a position managing apparatus 13. The contents distribution center 2 has contents storages 2A to 2C. The contents storages 2A to 2C obtain and store contents and distribute the contents to terminals near paths A, B, and C by using radio base stations A1 to A3, B1 to B3, and C1 to C3, respectively.
A mobile terminal such as a portable telephone 5 or an on-vehicle device 6 performs communication with the scheduling apparatus 11 of the travel information management center 1 via the radio base station and designates a present location X of itself, a destination Y, and the identifier of contents requested. The scheduling apparatus 11 requests the path predicting apparatus 12 to predict a plurality of paths from the present location X of the mobile terminal to the destination Y.
The path predicting apparatus 12 holds map information, traffic information, and the like and predicts travel paths of the user from the held information, present location X, and destination Y. In FIG. 8, a case where three paths A to C are predicted by the path predicting apparatus 12 is assumed.
In the case where contents of the designated identifier is not stored in any of the contents storages 2A to 2C corresponding to the paths A to C, the contents of the identifier is transferred from the contents server group 3 and stored into the contents storages 2A to 2C via the Internet 4.
The scheduling apparatus 11 obtains the position of the mobile terminal from the position managing apparatus 13. When the mobile terminal exists in a range to which the contents can be delivered from at least one radio base station, the contents is actually delivered. When the mobile terminal does not exist in the range to which the contents can be delivered, path prediction is re-tried and the contents is transferred to a contents storage on a path obtained as a result of the re-try. After that, the position of the mobile terminal is obtained again from the position managing apparatus 13, and processes similar to the above are repeated.
Position information obtained by a GPS or the like in the mobile terminal is periodically transmitted from the mobile terminal to the position managing apparatus or the radio base station used for communication by the mobile terminal is notified to the position managing apparatus 13. On the basis of the information, the position managing apparatus 13 calculates the position of the mobile terminal, thereby obtaining the position thereof.
As described above, the system in which the path predicting apparatus 12 is introduced predicts a path between the present location of the mobile terminal and the designated destination and delivers contents from a contents storage corresponding to the predicted path via a radio base station on the path. Since only the contents identifier and destination are sufficient as items to be designated necessary for downloading contents, the convenience to the user can be improved.
However, in the system proposed in the Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication (Heisei) 11-272711, the user has to designate not only the identifier of contents but also time and place to receive contents in advance. The system has a problem of lack of convenience to the user.
The problem is solved by the system proposed before by the applicant herein. The path predicting method has, concretely, the following steps:
(1) The scheduling apparatus 11 requests the path predicting apparatus 12 to predict a travel path of the mobile terminal. At the time of the request, the scheduling apparatus 11 notifies the path predicting apparatus 12 of identification information of the mobile terminal and the destination of the user.
(2) The path predicting apparatus 12 requests the position managing apparatus 13 for the position information of the mobile terminal.
(3) The position managing apparatus 13 calculates the travel direction and travel speed of the mobile terminal from fluctuations in the position information of the mobile terminal and notifies the path predicting apparatus 12 of the position information, travel direction, and travel speed of the mobile terminal.
(4) The path predicting apparatus 12 predicts a travel path of the user on the basis of the information such as map information and traffic information, the position information of the mobile terminal, and position information of the destination of the user. Concretely, the path predicting apparatus 12 predicts a path which can be used on the basis of the destination and the travel direction and speed of the user. When traffic jam occurs in the predicted path, the path predicting apparatus 12 adds a bypass for the case where the user avoids the traffic jam as a predicted path. The path predicting apparatus 12 has position information of the contents storages and position information of a radio base station group used by the contents storages, selects a contents storage having a radio base station group capable of performing excellent communication with a mobile terminal on the predicted path, and sends a notification to the scheduling apparatus 11. In the method, travel time of the mobile terminal on the path predicted by the path predicting apparatus 12 is not considered.
Consequently, for example, a problem occurs such that even a radio base station is on the predicted travel path, in the case such that there is no sufficient time for storing contents to a content storage, the contents from the radio base station cannot be delivered. There is also a problem such that scheduling management is insufficient when a number of mobile terminals designate acquisition of contents.